Strawberry Hill

Module 10

Strawberry Hill by Mary Ann Hoberman

Summary

Allie moves to Stamform Connecticut from New Haven during a time of the Depression. Allie is a ten year old little girl from urban New Haven. They lived in New Haven but her father worked in Stamford. So Allie’s father found a place for them to live in the new town. Allie did not want to move and leave her best friend Ruthie behind. Her new town was nothing like she imagined it would be. She expected some sign of strawberries. The name Strawberry hill made Allie think her town would be something different. Allie does meet new friends and learns valuable lessons when she witness racism and prejudice. She was surrounded by friends with personal issues. Allie’s mother taught her the difference between right and wrong and to treat every fair. She learns to deal with all the friends she met on Strawberry Hill Street and at school but learned valuable lessons in the process.

My Impression
Strawberry Hill is well written. The book is not what I expected when I saw a little girl on the cover with ponytails. I expected to read about a little girl going to a happy place with green grass and lots of flowers. The book looks at how racism affects people and the people inn their lives.

Lesson

This book can be used in the library and classroom to teach a great lesson about compassion, true kindness and friendship. Students will discuss each subject to share their thought on each subject.

Bibliography

Hoberman, Mary Ann., and On. Strawberry Hill. New York: Little, Brown and, 2009. Print.

Reviews
Strawberry Hill


"With story lines that are simple but never simplistic and perfectly crafted chapters in which the ordinary has the opportunity to become special, this is reminiscent of books by Elizabeth Enright and Sydney Taylor."

Booklist starred review

"Here is someone who knows how to bring detail and language into just the right balance to catch you up and pull you into the story. . . Hoberman maintains an exquisite balance between Allie's perspective and that of the adults around her, allowing for both a child's way of thinking and a polished narration."

New York Times Book Review

"Hoberman draws a full portrait of life on Strawberry Hill . . . Allie's plight will be utterly relatable to contemporary readers and the resolution is both satisfying and realistic."

Publishers Weekly

"Hoberman . . . makes a stunning debut with this charming book for middle-grade readers partly inspired by her own experience growing up during the Great Depression. With a poet's economy of words, she brings to vivid life a childhood from 70 years ago."

Buffalo News

"A charming coming-of-age story that introduces a feisty new heroine for girls to embrace."

Children's Book-of-the-Month Club

"A delightful and endearing autobiographical coming-of-age narrative."

BookPage

"A family story in the best sense of the word, with incidents and anecdotes about life in a well-adjusted family . . . a clear, fresh first-person point of view that knows and sees just what a ten-year would experience."

A review of this book by Sylvia Vardell.

"Poet Hoberman's debut novel, inspired . . . by her own youthful experience, is a pleasantly nostalgic read, but it also manages to be surprisingly contemporary and very effective in its handling of middle-grade relationships. Allie's struggles with the bestowing of the 'best friend' title will ring true with kids . . .The adults, too, are engaging and complex . . ."

Recommended. The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books